About

I wrote my first story at the age of the six—and the joy that sent me leaping down the hallway to share with my parents was enough to prompt an immediate career change. I gave up an illustrious, hours-long ambition of becoming a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader (after seeing the Love Boat episode, of course) and declared that writing was my destiny.

The designer was born…

(Translation: Pay a lot of money to go to school, get a degree and go beg for work.)

I took a very long-winded detour on my path to being The Greatest Novelist Ever. (My exact dream at age 8, I believe. Of course, then, the greatest novelist I knew was Dr. Seuss and…well, he’s still pretty great.) That detour dropped me into the career of marketing and design, for which I happily focused on for quite a few years. Little did I know how useful it would prove when I decided to start writing again. So you’ll also see my name as a cover artist and a web designer (Will Design for Chocolate) among other things.

My Journey as a Writer

When I finally decided to finish a book, I looked at my favorites for inspiration. My favorite author was Judith McNaught, so I decided to write in the era she did. Little did I know how much I would come to love the research involved in digging up the past — the good, the bad and the ugly. I also discovered a love of suspense…and a surprising knack for it. One day, my husband and I were having a dinner conversation with friends about the best way to kill someone and hide a body. (Doesn’t everyone discuss this over steak?) They all came up with sure-fire plots to land them in jail. And after I was finished coming up with my plot (involving chopping body parts), I suddenly realized the room had gotten very quiet.

Not long after that, I realized while I have a big drive to always find a silver-lining in life (hence the happy endings I love in romance), it would likely be as I drive under the clouds looking for a place to hide the body in the trunk. It’s an odd mix, I know — the positive meets the “Oh My God, what did she just do?” But I’ve learned to write what fascinates me…and I’ve also learned that there are some surprising skeletons in the closet of history. Stories in the making that I hope you will enjoy.

Writing is a solitary business, but I’m fortunate to have a husband who is my rock, my chef extraordinaire and first draft editor, my sounding board and the business side of my creative brain—and ultimately, my best friend. He’s the true stuff romantic heroes should be made of. We live in Northern California (for now!) with our son and a 90 pound laptop named Cooper.